As an antidote to the hype around Generative AI (GenAI), I highly recommend a couple of articles that posted last week on No Jitter. These are not contrarian takes, but rather, both supply some much-needed context that will help you understand what GenAI is capable of—less in the technical sense than in the sense of what enterprise organizations may be able to use it to accomplish.
In his post, Dave Michels of TalkingPointz sums up the matter succinctly when he writes of GenAI, “It’s just a tool.” Michels cautions, “Let’s not confuse technologies with results.”
Michels’ post provides a detailed analysis of the factors that tend to constrain innovation in contact centers, and how GenAI-fueled capabilities will have to fit into these models. He concludes that GenAI will definitely transform the contact center, but that the main focus will be cost savings rather than improving customer satisfaction.
In the other post, aptly titled, Generative AI in Collaboration: Reality Check, Irwin Lazar of Metrigy discusses the current state of AI-driven personal digital assistants. Lazar points to Metrigy survey data that shows enterprise trust in GenAI remains relatively low: “Specific concerns include accuracy of generative AI responses, security of corporate information that may be available to large language models, and privacy of information captured by generative AI tools such as meeting transcripts and interaction critiques,” he writes.
Lazar also notes that the ROI of these tools remains uncertain. Even if the vendor gives away the feature at no extra charge, enterprises will still incur costs from training, support, and security/compliance efforts, he writes.
Both posts are insightful, measured in their analysis, and superbly written; you really should check them out.
You also should check out the Enterprise Connect 2024 agenda, which I believe will also offer many similarly nuanced views of where enterprises should be looking if they want to use GenAI for productivity and other gains. One of the sessions I’m most excited about will be led by Douglas Tubaugh, VP of Technology Architecture and Solutions at Hannover Re, one of the world’s largest global reinsurance companies. In the session, Tubaugh will look at GenAI applications in the larger context of productivity within the enterprise, and how IT can best support this broader goal, without being dogmatic about technologies.
We’ll also be presenting a session led by Brent Kelly of Omdia and Kevin Kieller of enableUC, in which they’ll delve into detail on cloud communications platforms’ use of large language models (LLMs), and will examine GenAI applications on these platforms. They’ll start with the basic question: “Should you even use Generative AI?” and go from there.
The Enterprise Connect 2024 program has a complete track on AI & Automation, as well as many AI-focused sessions within our CX/Contact Center and Collaboration Platforms track. GenAI is going to be a fact of life in the enterprise; it already is. The question is, what’s actually behind all the hype, and how will your enterprise use this transformative technology safely and effectively? I hope you can join us in Orlando to be part of the discussion on this critical topic.
Programming note: This newsletter will be taking an end-of-year break. We’ll see you all on January 11, 2024. Happy holidays!
